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can feel quite upset for brief periods, but we usually snap out of it. If your score remains in this range for more than two weeks, you should definitely seek professional treatment.
    If your score was above 50, it indicates your depression is severe or even extreme. This degree of suffering can be almost unbearable, especially when the score is increased above 75. Your moods are apt to be intensely uncomfortable and possibly dangerous because the feelings of despair and hopelessness may even trigger suicidal impulses.
    Fortunately, the prognosis for successful treatment is excellent. In fact, sometimes the most severe depressions respondthe most rapidly. But it is not wise to try to treat a severe depression on your own. A professional consultation is a must. Seek out a trusted and competent counselor.
    Even if you receive psychotherapy or antidepressant medications, I am convinced you can still benefit greatly by applying what I teach you. My research studies have indicated that the spirit of self-help greatly speeds up recovery, even when patients receive professional treatment.
    In addition to evaluating your total score on the BDC, be sure you pay special attention to items 23, 24, and 25. These items ask about suicidal feelings, urges, and plans. If you had elevated scores on any of these items, I would strongly recommend that you obtain professional help right away.
    Many depressed individuals have elevated scores on item 23, but zeros on items 24 and 25. This usually means they have suicidal thoughts, such as “I’d probably be better off dead,” but no actual suicidal intentions or urges and no plans to commit suicide. This pattern is quite common. If your scores on item 24 or 25 are elevated, however, this is a cause for alarm. Seek treatment immediately !
    I have provided some effective methods for assessing and reversing suicidal impulses in a later chapter, but you must consult a professional when suicide begins to appear to be a desirable or necessary option. Your conviction that you are hopeless is the reason to seek treatment, not suicide. The majority of seriously depressed individuals believe they are hopeless beyond any shadow of a doubt. This destructive delusion is merely a symptom of the illness, not a fact. Your feeling that you are hopeless is powerful evidence that you are actually not!
    It is also important for you to look at item 22, which asks if you have been more worried about your health recently. Have you experienced any unexplained aches, pains, fever, weight loss, or other possible symptoms of medical illness? If so, it would be worthwhile to have a medical consultation, which would include a history, a complete physical examination, and laboratory tests. Your doctor will probably give you a clean bill of health. This will suggest that your uncomfortable physical symptoms are related to your emotional state. Depression can mimic a great number of medical disorders because your mood swings often createa wide variety of puzzling physical symptoms. These include, to name just a few, constipation, diarrhea, pain, insomnia or the tendency to sleep too much, fatigue, loss of sexual interest, light-headedness, trembling, and numbness. As your depression improves, these symptoms will in all likelihood vanish. However, keep in mind that many treatable illnesses may initially masquerade as depression, and a medical examination could reveal an early (and life-saving) diagnosis of a reversible organic disorder.
    There are a number of symptoms that indicate—but do not prove—the existence of a serious mental disturbance, and these require a consultation with and possible treatment by a mental-health professional, in addition to the self-administered personal-growth program in this book. Some of the major symptoms include: the belief that people are plotting and conspiring against you in order to hurt you or take your life; a bizarre experience which the ordinary person cannot understand; the